Casino Payout regulations

[FAA]

Casino patrons bet more than $37 billion annually—more than Americans
spend to attend sporting events ($17.8B), movies ($10.7B), and buy music ($6.8B) combined.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It's been well documented that we aren't going to the movies or buying music anymore. But gambling? Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

[billryan]

At least Phil has an excuse for his poor performance. He doesn't live in Vegas. Doug lives in the land of milk and honey. He should be making $1,000 a month or more just off of mailings and coupons. Not even mentioning exploitable promos like last weeks giveaway.
Winners win, losers lose and whiners whine. In Video poker. In life.

[FAA]

If in AC, the marina is the sweet spot. Harrah's Payback: 91.7%. Borgata Payback: 91.6%. Plus both venues are actually fun, spacious and modern. I just have to keep reinforcing the chart contents to leave the boardwalk. It's a quick ride to better play and a nicer day. The chart is smart.

[Eduardo]

Casino patrons bet more than $37 billion annually—more than Americans
spend to attend sporting events ($17.8B), movies ($10.7B), and buy music ($6.8B) combined.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It's been well documented that we aren't going to the movies or buying music anymore. But gambling? Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

If you include lotteries and sports betting it is well over 100 billion. Americans also spent $39 Billion on cosmetics, 3.2 TRILLION on health care, and 5.1 Gazillion on chili cheese fries and soda.I haven't fact checked that last number. But we are a curious country.

[billryan]

Out of curiosity, if I bet 1,000 hands at $1 a hand, did I wager $1,000? Just trying to make sense of how the 37 billion figure is arrived at.
If I go to a concert, I spent $50 on the ticket, and $30 on other stuff. Those are hard numbers, easy to track.
If I walk into a casino with $100, wager 1,0000 hands at $1 per, and walk out with $70. what number do you use?
Did gamblers wager 37 billion or did they lose $37 billion.

[onemoretry]

Furthermore, anyone who understands string manipulation will understand WHY the VP isn't what it used to be.

You can't sell books and software if anyone starts to learn about how string manipulation works with RNG.

What is string manipulation?

[DaBurglar]

[QUOTE=DougJ]
Furthermore, anyone who understands string manipulation will understand WHY the VP isn't what it used to be.

You can't sell books and software if anyone starts to learn about how string manipulation works with RNG.

What is string manipulation?[/QUOTE]

I only had one semester of C programming, it was many years ago and programming was not my profession...while I don't presume to think I know what Dougj was directly hinting at nor know his level of expertise, string manipulation goes directly to the heart of RNG integrity, and therefore VP integrity. RNGs generate random numbers but can express those numbers in a variety of ways, symbols or values, and one common way is in random strings (whether a string of numbers or letters or both). A Video poker game has 52 (or 53 or 54) cards to deal with, each card essentially being assigned it's own random string of numbers/letters etc. Manipulation of the strings would allow whomever to alter or influence the results of a VP game in an innumerable fashion. The obvious purpose for a casino is to limit the occurrence of specific strings which would limit the occurrence of certain hands(like royals or other hands).

I will leave it to a bonafide programmer to expound on this...

[DougJ]

[QUOTE=onemoretry] [QUOTE=DougJ]
Furthermore, anyone who understands string manipulation will understand WHY the VP isn't what it used to be.

You can't sell books and software if anyone starts to learn about how string manipulation works with RNG.

What is string manipulation?[/QUOTE]

I only had one semester of C programming, it was many years ago and programming was not my profession...while I don't presume to think I know what Dougj was directly hinting at nor know his level of expertise, string manipulation goes directly to the heart of RNG integrity, and therefore VP integrity. RNGs generate random numbers but can express those numbers in a variety of ways, symbols or values, and one common way is in random strings (whether a string of numbers or letters or both). A Video poker game has 52 (or 53 or 54) cards to deal with, each card essentially being assigned it's own random string of numbers/letters etc. Manipulation of the strings would allow whomever to alter or influence the results of a VP game in an innumerable fashion. The obvious purpose for a casino is to limit the occurrence of specific strings which would limit the occurrence of certain hands(like royals or other hands).

I will leave it to a bonafide programmer to expound on this...[/QUOTE]

DaBurglar, you are correct only in the sense that strings are manipulated to alter or influence the results of any VP game.
However, the average computer programmer would not be able to expound on this.
After reading your explanation, I searched this forum and discovered: VOILA, someone else already raised this exact subject back in 2013, topic title: "The game is not the same!", posted in the subforum, Viva Las Vegas (post date Sept 2013).
If you can find that thread, read it! In it, a poster named "willie" seemed to have some grasp of computer algorithms and string manipulation.

In sum, it IS why video poker is not the same. Casinos can lower paytables till the cows come home to the barn, but string manipulation is their insurance.
Granoff can talk about math insofar as which cards to hold on any individual hand, but good luck explaining why players perceive "hot and cold" streaks.

[asteroid]

Doug, the thread link you refer to is:http://forum.videopoker.com/forum/forum ... p?TID=5441  .In this thread linked above, poster Williejoe pretty much nails what is going on in regards to why VP is different since about 2011.In summary it is because the sampling of the prng number string has been improved due to faster processing speeds and not ever stopping the prng and its sampling. Whereas before, when the player pressed the draw button, 5 cards and 5 replacement cards (used to replace whatever draw cards, if any, were not held) would be selected. So now it is a giant spinning roulette wheel where the prng string represents the numbers on the roulette wheel and this wheel is always spinning. When the deal button is pressed, a virtual hand grabs a card from the ever-spinning wheel, until 5 are selected. And the same for the draws for the unheld cards.Basically now things are more random, and before they were less random (because before you would land in a spot with more "hot" or "cold" clusters to take cards from because the virtual roulette wheel was slower or stopped completely). [QUOTE=DaBurglar] [QUOTE=onemoretry] [QUOTE=DougJ]
Furthermore, anyone who understands string manipulation will understand WHY the VP isn't what it used to be.

You can't sell books and software if anyone starts to learn about how string manipulation works with RNG.

What is string manipulation?[/QUOTE]

I only had one semester of C programming, it was many years ago and programming was not my profession...while I don't presume to think I know what Dougj was directly hinting at nor know his level of expertise, string manipulation goes directly to the heart of RNG integrity, and therefore VP integrity. RNGs generate random numbers but can express those numbers in a variety of ways, symbols or values, and one common way is in random strings (whether a string of numbers or letters or both). A Video poker game has 52 (or 53 or 54) cards to deal with, each card essentially being assigned it's own random string of numbers/letters etc. Manipulation of the strings would allow whomever to alter or influence the results of a VP game in an innumerable fashion. The obvious purpose for a casino is to limit the occurrence of specific strings which would limit the occurrence of certain hands(like royals or other hands).

I will leave it to a bonafide programmer to expound on this...[/QUOTE]

DaBurglar, you are correct only in the sense that strings are manipulated to alter or influence the results of any VP game.
However, the average computer programmer would not be able to expound on this.
After reading your explanation, I searched this forum and discovered: VOILA, someone else already raised this exact subject back in 2013, topic title: "The game is not the same!", posted in the subforum, Viva Las Vegas (post date Sept 2013).
If you can find that thread, read it! In it, a poster named "willie" seemed to have some grasp of computer algorithms and string manipulation.

In sum, it IS why video poker is not the same. Casinos can lower paytables till the cows come home to the barn, but string manipulation is their insurance.
Granoff can talk about math insofar as which cards to hold on any individual hand, but good luck explaining why players perceive "hot and cold" streaks.
[/QUOTE]

[DougJ]

. . .Basically now things are more random, and before they were less random (because before you would land in a spot with more "hot" or "cold" clusters to take cards from because the virtual roulette wheel was slower or stopped completely).
. .


String manipulation does not mean things are more random now, except insofar as referencing the sequence within the length of a particular string. While the RNG is constantly "spinning", as you call it, it is happening within a specific string. String manipulation refers to multiple strings.